JCR Honda Wins 2011 SCORE Baja 1000 [Video]

Josh Burns of our sister site Off-Road.com was in Mexico to cover the 2011 SCORE Baja 1000. He sent us this report of the motorcycle results. For more, check out Off-Road.com and the related reading links at the bottom of this post.

After more than 14 hours of racing, the overall motorcycle win for the 2011 SCORE Baja 1000 still came down to the wire. At the finish line in Ensenada, Mexico, the 1x JCR Honda CRF450X and the 11x Kawasaki KX450F were separated by only 10 minutes, but in the end Kendall Norman, Quinn Cody and Logan Holladay earned another Baja 1000 victory for Honda.

This year, the Baja veterans Norman and Cody decided to add another racer due to the roughness of the course, and instead of taking on another racer with tons of Baja experience, they went with the talented rider but inexperienced Baja racer in Holladay. The JCR Honda 1x team decided it was a worthwhile risk.

“You know, it was a good thing. We need another guy for this race to break it up,” Cody said. “Last year it was the Peninsula run, 1100 miles, and we did it with two guys. But this course was so rough we needed to add another guy.

“We chose Logan, who is unproven. We took a big risk taking him on. This is his first Baja 1000, and we just decided to take a risk and we have faith in him. We put him on the bike for a good little over 100-mile section and he did awesome.”

The THR Motorsports Kawasaki gave them a legitimate challenge throughout the race. The team is a who’s who of off-road racing, led by rider of record Shane Esposito and featuring Robby Bell (pictured below), Steve Hengeveld, Bobby Garrison and David Pearson. The team stayed within a few minutes of the 1x bike for much of the day, even possibly taking the lead on corrected time at one point, but they were unable to get past the 1x bike and finished 10 minutes, 30 seconds behind the winners.

THR Motorsports gave JCR Honda a run for their money. Robby Bell talks about the battle at the finish line.

“When I got on the bike I knew we were pretty much equal on time [with JCR Honda],” Esposito said at this finish line. “I think I lost by a minute and a half to Kendall on my section, but I didn’t want to take any big chances I just wanted to get the bike to the next section. We were within about 30 seconds on time and then something happened with the lights. Hengeveld had to ride his section with one light, and then about halfway through my section it started working again and [I] had lights to the finish.

“But, you know, I’m happy no one went down, everyone’s healthy and we’re all here to come back and race again.”

The other JCR Honda bike, the 0x, finished in third place overall. They did, however, earn the season championship in the class. Colton Udall, David Kamo and Timmy Weigand earned the Class 22 with the finish, but they also did so while honoring fallen teammate Jeff “Ox” Kargola, who won the SCORE San Felipe 250 with Udall earlier in the year before passing away in a non-racing dirt bike accident in Baja. The team runs the 0x number in honor of “Ox.”

“He’s the reason why I’m winning this championship,” Udall said, saying he hopes he stays with him as motivation for the rest of his life.